August 28, 1911
Can be Marketed Two Months Earlier Than From Elsewhere
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EXPERIMENT WAS A SUCCESS
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Men Who Understand Business Can Clear 400 Pesos Per Acre Without Difficulty
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There are opportunities in the state of Guerrero, Mex., for a few American truck farmers who understand the scientific culture of cantaloupes and certain garden and field vegetables to make some quick money next winter, according to J.M. Gonzalez, assistant superintendent of the Mexican Express company, who was here a day or two ago. Mr. Gonzalez is the head of the promotion department of his company, which is controlled by the Mexican government, and it is a part of his work to search out the most favorable places in Mexico for successful horticulture and agriculture, instruct land owners furnish the seed of improved varieties of fruit and vegetables.
Mr. Gonzalez decided last year, after considerable investigation, that the Amacuzac river valley in the state of Guerrero, is the locality where high grade cantaloupes can be produced plentifully for the market two months before they can be ripened in the states or in any other district of Mexico. He arranged with Indian planters to use a small tract of land, gave them the seed, saw that they prepared the ground properly in November and subsequently cultivated it well. As a reward for the experiment a bumper crop of cantaloupes was turned off in February, the price of $2.50 gold per crate of 50 melons, or at the rate of 5 cents gold per melon. Nearly all of the little fruit was shipped to United States buyers.
Mr. Gonzalez says that American melon growers who know their business could make 400 pesos per acre in five months in the Amacuzac valley. The valley is under irrigation and will also produce early cucumbers, egg plant, okra, beans, sweet corn and other market specialties. The lands could be secured under lease and are close to the station of Puente de Ixtia and Jojutla on the National railway. Scientific instruction has been given to the Indians of the valley by Stanley F. Morse, agricultural expert for the government railroads, also by Mr. Gonzalez, the latter having made a dozen visits to the district while last winter’s crop was growing.
After the early melons and vegetables are taken off the land is planted to rice and flooded until September. Then, after the rice harvest is finished, the ground is plowed and pulverized for the other crop. The kinds of cantaloupes that seem to thrive best in the valley are the green flesh variety and the Rocky Fords. Efficient Indian laborers can be secured for 75 cents Mexican silver, per day.
There have been no disturbances in the Amacuzac river country during the period of revolution that Mexican is passing through. The Indians of that section are a peace loving fold, occupied with their planting in preference to warlike undertakings
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